The “dog” project morphs

Fourteen volunteers showed up yesterday to continue the “dog” cleanup project. Uruguayan, Canadian, American, South African, and Cuban. Sweating profusely, we filled two volquetes to overflowing, including

• five refrigerators
• three televisions
• one stove

We did “meet” the dogs. Apparently the all-but-immobile husband, closed in the house with the dogs on a hot day, decided he’d had enough. He had already insisted that no one touch a pile of old tires (even though there is no vehicle even close to functioning — the volquete driver will remove the four rusty hulks at no cost, presumably for their scrap value). Husband opened the door. Dogs poured out, barking, making a couple of people understandably nervous. The vet Mariana and I fanned out and helped drive them back inside. They were no problem; obviously loved.

It appeared there were about 25 dogs, not 44. And it seems that ASH (Animales sin Hogar, Animals without Homes), the private animal rescue agency, announced some time ago that they had received 50 or so dogs from an individual. So our speculation is that somehow someone rescued them from Telma, who OBTW is now Marlena (?).

We disassembled the roof that had blown off, and consolidated sheet metal, so the lot is somewhat organized and the dogs have more usable ground. Next phase would be construction, but the person in charge of that is sidelined with a sinus infection.

Meanwhile, the lot-clearing and construction project mission-creeps into a open-ended social work project for low-functioning hoarders. For which others are better suited than I.